Designing interactive and motivating stimuli for children with visual impairments

Abstract

The long-term effects of visual impairments can, in some instances, be mitigated if the sensory cells in the eye are trained appropriately during (early) childhood. Exposure to visual stimuli like cardboards with high-contrast visual patterns is the cornerstone to a successful treatment. However, despite its benefits, this kind of vision training can be tedious and demotivating for children. To leverage training and therapy, we propose interaction design to create multimodal stimuli that are rewarding and motivating. The present work elaborated on this suggestion and presents a design concept that makes the vision therapist a playmaker, coach, playmate, wizard, and statistician all at the same time.